Middle Eastern tyrants

Chapter 12 The Nukoshir outpost is preparing for war.

"Of course you'll listen to me! Otherwise, why would I listen to you?!"

Lu Lin and Major Bandar were arguing heatedly about the issue of evacuating refugees, and the argument had reached a fever pitch.

This major, who had just been transferred to his command, was clearly a troublemaker.

Lu Lin's idea was to delineate a neutral safety zone around the camp, keeping it at a distance from military facilities, and then have the SRCA supervise and provide basic supplies, opening evacuation routes if necessary.

After all, Lu Lin is still a Seres soldier at heart, and this plan can protect the lives of refugees to the greatest extent.

Major Bandar's plan, however, was much more ruthless. While he agreed to conscript refugees to help build fortifications, he planned to expel all the remaining women and children who were unable to work.

"Don't forget, you personally dealt with the spies who infiltrated these refugees. They are a bunch of time bombs. You are the military commander here, and you are first and foremost responsible to the soldiers here," Major Bandar retorted coldly.

“You’re right about that. My rank is the highest in this outpost!” Lu Lin shouted. “If you dare to talk back to me again, you can go sweep camel dung!”

"Scan it then!"

Major Bandar walked out without looking back, leaving behind a large back of his head.

Lu Lin rubbed his temples. This kind of person only respects real skills. The best way to deal with Major Bandar is to fight a few tough battles.

According to the latest intelligence, Zion's 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division has completed the encirclement of Masr's 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions, effectively trapping over 6,000 Masr's army soldiers.

This crushing defeat led Masr to completely abandon the Sinai Peninsula, retreating his remaining troops to the west of the Suez Canal and becoming a coward.

The two countries reached a strange tacit understanding: Zion achieved a major victory in the Sinai Peninsula and stopped attacking Masr, instead turning its attention to crushing the Hashim Kingdom.

The allies' feigned death caused the Hashim a great deal of trouble. Fortunately, the Hashim River hindered Zion's armored onslaught; otherwise, the Hashim's retreat would probably have been even faster than that of the Surria.

Shuangzhi and Corvette were completely bewildered. They had just been preparing to gather troops to support Masr, but now they could only wait in place.

Combat readiness work is proceeding at full speed, and by tomorrow afternoon, the first mechanized infantry battalion under Lu Lin's command will be almost fully reorganized.

The headquarters gave him a lot of freedom, including a staff of a thousand men, so Lu Lin boldly built his own team.

He incorporated all the Shermans and AMX-13s into the tank company, forming a purely armored force, personally led by Major Bandar.

The rest of the men were organized into three mechanized infantry companies, one artillery company, and one logistics support unit.

Each infantry company consists of about one hundred men, equipped with M3 infantry fighting vehicles and M2 heavy machine guns.

The logistics support force conscripted able-bodied men from among the refugees to be responsible for ammunition resupply and medical transport.

In addition, to prevent air raids from Zion, Lu Lin also formed an anti-aircraft platoon and a reconnaissance platoon, and gave him four Bofors cannons and the remaining machine guns.

The headquarters will send an artillery regiment later, and Lu Lin plans to personally command it, using his Eagle Eye cheat to ensure that every shot is accurate.

The experienced Ahmed was placed in the General Staff by him, where he usually helped Lu Lin handle documents, while his adjutant Khalid also volunteered, claiming that he wanted to hone his military skills.

Lu Lin, who had just sent out all the tasks, suddenly found himself with nothing to do, so he decided to go out and check how the "sleight of hand" was going.

He walked all the way to the armored unit's warehouse and saw soldiers building a wooden frame for Sherman.

"Lieutenant Colonel, do you think our changes are acceptable?" A soldier saluted him.

Upon seeing the battalion commander personally come to inspect, everyone stopped what they were doing and stood up straight.

Lu Lin gestured for them to continue, then looked them over and offered suggestions for revision:
"The hull needs to be longer and wider. We need to make the Sherman look bigger. In addition, the turret also needs to be enlarged, and the gun barrel should be 105mm in size."

"Add a small turret on top of the large turret—that's the essence!"

"The hull is fine, but the turret..." The corporal, who was sharpening the edges of the wood, seemed a little troubled.

"Idiot!" Lu Lin slapped his hat. "Be smart! If wood is hard to work with, we can use mud! As long as we can fool the Zionist reconnaissance planes, we'll make them think we have United States tanks!"

"Lieutenant Colonel, which tank are we imitating?" someone asked curiously.

Lu Lin was about to say that he planned to imitate the M60 Patton, but then he thought, what if it didn't have that name?
(M60 main battle tank)

The soldiers got busy again. With Battalion Commander Lu personally supervising, everyone worked quickly. In just half an hour, a Sherman was crudely camouflaged.

Lu Lin didn't have a photo of the M60 Patton, so he could only recall the details from his memory. Looking at this "hybrid" in front of him, he felt uncomfortable with everything about it.

After looking for a while, he realized that the Sherman was too short. This was because the Sherman had small road wheels, while the M60 had six pairs of large wheels. But this was obviously not something that could be disguised, so he waved his hand and said, "Cover up all the road wheels!"

The soldiers immediately did as instructed, and it looked much better now. Lu Lin compared it again, and then his eyes lit up when he looked at the paint bucket next to him.

He walked over and placed the paint bucket on top of the turret, mimicking an infrared light. That's more like it!
Lu Lin gestured for a while before the soldier understood what he meant. He looked at the "masterpiece" in front of him and nodded in satisfaction.

"Let's use this template, and then build another batch of fake ones with wooden frames to disguise all our tanks as looking like this!"

He added, "Also, paint all the armor a shit-green color, and draw a big white star on the front. Remember, the white star must be very obvious!"

"Yes!"

After a busy afternoon, Lu Lin was a little hungry. He saw many soldiers starting to assemble, so he followed behind them to get something to eat.

Shuangzhi treats the border guards quite well. Although the supplies haven't arrived yet, the quality is good; at least you can see the meat broth.

The soldier serving the food didn't recognize him at first, but when he saw the two silver stars on Lu Lin's shoulder, he almost slammed the food spoon down on his head.

Lu Lin found this strange. Did he not eat with the other soldiers before?

He was then given a full bowl of thick soup made from chickpeas and lamb bones, with several large pieces of meat visible at a glance, emitting a rich aroma.

The main dish was naan bread, so Lu Lin just grabbed some. Just as he was about to find a place to start eating, he caught a glimpse of Ahmed out of the corner of his eye.

"Lieutenant Colonel?"

The veteran wondered if he was seeing things, as there was still soup on his beard.

Lu Lin simply sat down in front of him with his bowl, and, imitating the other soldiers, dipped his naan bread in the mutton soup and ate it.

To be honest, although chickpeas taste a bit strange, they are actually quite delicious.

Ahmed seemed to choke. He looked at Lu Lin, who was eating with great relish, and tentatively asked, "Is this all you're having for dinner?"

Lu Lin had noticed the curious looks from the soldiers around him. He immediately understood that Amir had probably been giving him special treatment before, so he explained while eating, "I want to try something different today."

“That’s good, the mutton stew is quite good.” Ahmed nodded, and the two began to eat in tacit agreement.

Just then, Khalid walked over, but he was clearly not there to eat. When he saw Lu Lin holding a bowl, the two stared at each other in disbelief.

He guessed that the other party was inviting him to dinner, but Khalid did not make a sound. Soon after, the latter came over with mutton soup and also pushed aside the soldiers standing nearby.

"This mutton soup is quite good."

Khalid took a bite and immediately grimaced from the heat, so he had to follow Ahmed's example and dip the bread in the soup to eat.

Lu Lin suddenly remembered drinking old Beijing-style douzhi (fermented mung bean juice) by swirling the bowl around the edge of the bowl. He tried it and found that drinking it that way was indeed less likely to burn his head.

The three of them ate in silence, with only the slurping of soup and the sounds of chewing filling the air.

Then, Lieutenant Baksh, who was uninvited, joined them. After the reorganization of the Nukoshir outpost troops, Baksh became the company commander of the logistics unit, which can be considered a promotion.

He was clearly there for Lu Lin. As soon as he sat down, he started sighing and complaining, as if the words "pay back the debt" were etched on his forehead.

“Lieutenant Colonel, I suggest we request another batch of disinfectant from headquarters. This stuff is being used up very quickly, and it's likely to become even more scarce in the future. Also, there's that Seris medicated oil; it's excellent at repelling mosquitoes.” Lieutenant Baksh took a sip of soup and said with some surprise, “The soup is quite good today.”

Don't you have anything else to say?
So Lu Lin changed the subject and asked, "Baksh, are you married?"

“I’ve been married for over ten years, Lieutenant.” Upon hearing this question, the logistics company commander’s brow immediately relaxed, and he smiled, “I got married when I was fifteen, and now my eldest child is almost the same age I was back then! In another two years, I’ll have to find him a girl from a similar social standing, and then I’ll be a grandfather!”

"By the way, Lieutenant Colonel, are you married?"

Lu Lin regretted bringing up this topic.

However, someone quickly came to his rescue. The person who came was Major Bandar, but he had a strange smell about him, and everyone avoided him wherever he went.

Major Bandar, seeing that everyone was there, also ladled out a bowl of soup and came over. Lu Lin frowned: "You didn't actually go sweep camel dung, did you?"

"Didn't you send me?" Major Bandar said, unsurprised and even somewhat pleased. "I wasn't doing very well at first, but I've figured it out now..."

Khalid nearly vomited up his mutton soup after hearing this, and he immediately shooed the other person away: "Go away, go drink it over there by yourself!"

Major Bandar shrugged. He knew he smelled bad, so he found a corner, squatted down, and started drinking.

This rough-looking guy had been thinking about how to ease the tension with his boss the whole way, but he messed it up as soon as he started a conversation.

He took a sip of the mutton soup, somewhat dejected, then his brow relaxed, and he uttered the same sentiment:

"Hey? This soup is really good today."

(End of this chapter)